Campbell's chef: 'I need to know the best time to take advantage of trends for our different brands'
David Landers, senior chef at Campbell’s Culinary and Baking Institute, presented the packaged food giant’s strategy for identifying and acting on trends, known as Culinary Trendscaping. Part of the tool, Landers said, involves identifying the six stages of a trend in the marketplace: discovery, introduction, adoption, mainstream, established and expanded; and then whether and how to act on those trends across the firm’s different brands, based on where the target consumer falls.
"We have dedicated teams just working on this part of our business," Lander said. "They're not bogged down with line extensions for Chunky Campbell's soup, or the next flavor of Goldfish crackers. They're looking to find pain points with the consumer, find solutions, write them and translate that into food. Then it's about turning those recipes into formulas and scaling them up and sending them out to world. They're simple steps, but hard to do."
Attendees then sampled a range of goodies prepared by Campbell's chefs to showcase the hottest culinary trends, from cloves of black garlic (fermentation) to Reuben palmiers (Jewish deli) and Rebel Mary's Spicy Bloody Mary flavored peanuts (beverage-inspired flavors).
“The trends we're talking about today are the same conversation I’m having about food every day and all the time. But then I need to know the best time to take advantage of trends for my different brands,” Landers noted. “Campbell’s Go Soups line is at a different stage in the marketplace than condensed soup, for example. It’s about being ahead of the curve and creating experiences and flavors while consumers are still interested in that food.”
